Training on Value for Money to help African Countries Address Inefficiencies in Social Spending

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is organizing a training session on Value for Money (VfM) with senior government officials and civil society organisations from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Zambia on November 4-7 2013 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The training is aimed at building capacity of key stakeholders to address inefficiencies in social spending in African countries. On average 40-60% of public expenditure goes to social spending in Africa, which calls for improved governance, and voice and accountability in social spending. In order to foster and sustain progress in human development (education, health, social protection), African countries need to focus on results for the money that they spend on social services.

This is why the AfDB, in collaboration with the Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI)and Harmonization for Health in Africa (HHA), has taken a lead role in putting value for money, sustainability and accountability on the policy agenda across social sectors in Africa.

Health spending is one of the key areas targetted in the training. During this 4-day training session, participants will get a unique opportunity to:

Discuss key challenges and share knowledge and best practices in implementing strategies that improve VfM;

Build capacity of key stakeholders (finance, health, and CSOs) to improve dialogue and effectively play their role in ensuring VfM;

Identify areas of in-depth capacity building and continued learning on improving VfM;

Develop and agree on further integration of capacity building materials for education on VfM, and

Explore partnership with training institutions towards sustainable capacity building at a larger scale.